Moving White Mountains that Make Water Flow

But How Long?

The United Nations General Assembly declared 2025 as the 'International Year of Glaciers Preservation' and 2025-2034 as the 'Decade of Action for Cryosphere-Sciences'. It also declared 21^stMarch as the very first 'World Day of Glaciers'. The next day - 22^nd March is World Water Day that is being observed for more than 30 years. The successive dates clearly underscore the intertwined theme: 'Glaciers are Water Towers'. These declarations aim to underscore the critical importance of glaciers that I call 'Moving Mountains'! They are melting and diminishing at unprecedented rate due to global warming. 

United Nations World Water Development Report 2025, poignantly titled, "Mountain and Glaciers: The Water Towers," was launched on 21st March 2025. That was a unique opportunity to the global community to understand the nexus between rapidly melting glaciers, water-security, and even resulting disasters like Glacial Lake Outburst Flow (GLOF). The escalating threats to the global stability and peace, driven by these interconnected challenges, are becoming increasingly evident and demand urgent multistakeholder actions.

The statistics from UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme states that:

• Global warming is causing rapid thinning and retreat of glaciers in the mountain regions.Up to 41% of total mountain glacier mass projected to vanish by 2100, threatening water security and ecosystem balance. "The mountains are issuing a distress call", stated United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
  
• Mountain regions, covering 24% of the global land surface, are home to around 1.1 billion people, contributing a staggering 55–60% of the world's annual freshwater flows, sustaining billions of lives downstream. Up to two-thirds of the world's irrigated agriculture relies on mountain water.
  
• The glaciers continue to melt faster than ever before. A recent study reveals that Antarctica is turning from 'white to green'. The disappearance of snow cover was more than 30% between 2016 and 2021. Arctic and Antarctic glaciers are vital regulators of Earth's climate. According to the Scientific Assessment of the Tibetan plateau, known as Third Pole, is warming at almost twice the global average. Glacial lake outburst floods, have become increasingly frequent as global warming causes glaciers to retreat, releasing huge amounts of meltwater in a matter of years.
  

Green TERRE Foundation, partnering with UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme, has planned a month-long campaign in March-April 2025 to promote the awareness and trigger actions on Glacier preservation, water conservation, Climate mitigation, resilience and adaptation. Green TERRE Foundation's flagship project, Smart Campus Cloud Network- SCCN (sccnhub.com) which has woven a global network of 500+ universities would be the boot camps for the month-long events designed to rapidly increase and significantly impact knowledge and abilities of youth in the universities.

Universities in Himalayan, Andes and Alps regions would be engaged in similar activities for glacial assessment, preservation and AI based monitoring. 'Campus to Communities' would be the approach that is expected to be the legacy of the 2025: International Year of Glaciers Preservation. END